VICTORIAN CURTAINS IN LACE DESIGNS

By ANN BARRY

Published: February 12, 1987

IN the renovation of Victorian houses, lace curtains are often an important grace note - not just any lace curtains, but period designs that add credence to the overall look.

While period lace curtains were once heirlooms, retail outlets now offer finished reproductions, some by mail order. One is J.R. Burrows & Company of Boston, which specializes in Nottingham lace curtains.

''I found a mill in Scotland still making lace patterns from 19th-century machinery,'' said John Burrows, an architectural historian who owns the company. ''Since these looms allowed for great sophistication in pattern-making, they simply never went out of production.''

The machinery uses the Jacquard system, something of a Victorian computer technique, in which pattern punch cards instruct a machine with bobbins. Since the machinery is Victorian, the results might be considered original, not reproduction.

''Five years ago people were restoring the exteriors of Victorian houses, but using modern interiors -all white with bare windows,'' Mr. Burrows said. He added that he sees a trend toward more sensitivity to interior period details. ''If you study the houses of the 1880's and 1890's, many just used lace curtains without all those swag draperies and heavy velvets,'' he said.

The fabric in the Burrows curtains is 95 percent cotton and 5 percent polyester. The curtains may be machine-washed on a gentle cycle; because of the high cotton content, Mr. Burrows recommended hanging them over a shower rod to dry. His curtains, in 12-foot-long brownstone styles, are $32 to $55 a panel.

One of the oldest concerns making period lace is Quaker Lace, which was founded just after the turn of the century and still uses Nottingham looms from that period.

''These machines can't be replaced,'' said Laura Reuter, the advertising manager. ''If a part breaks down, we have to remake it.'' Quaker Lace offers five Victorian designs in 85 percent cotton and 15 percent polyester, for minimum shrinkage. Prices are $20 to $50 a panel. Among the 15 lace curtain designs produced by Rue de France, two are specifically Victorian: a floral pattern called Belle Fleur, and a design to be introduced in the spring catalogue called Panier, with fruit baskets and scrolls.

''There's a general return to a more romantic look in houses,'' said Pamela Kelley, president. ''People have reacted to the sterility of Venetian blinds and white walls.''

Rue de France curtains are a 100 percent acrylic material with the feel of cotton. They have a country-house character, with texture and body.

''One of the ways to describe lace is by what is called 'points,' which correspond to the size of the holes,'' Mrs. Kelley said. ''Fine lingerie lace would be about 12 points. Mine has 4 points.'' Prices are $25 to $100 a panel. Among those who have a romance with the past are Tom and Sue Carroll, who have dressed the windows of their Mainstay Inn, a bed-and-breakfast establishment in Cape May, N.J., with a variety of lace curtains. The inn was built in 1872 as a clubhouse, with high ceilings and 13-foot-high windows in the first-floor drawing room, parlor and dining room.

''We wanted to be authentic and decided from the beginning that we would re-create a Victorian house,'' Mrs. Carroll said. ''There was some of the original furniture from the 1870's still here, and a house of that time would have had lace curtains.''

At first, Mrs. Carroll made the curtains herself - not only for the public rooms but also for the five guest rooms - rooting through local fabric houses. ''You had to buy bolts,'' she said. She finds now that outlets for Victorian lace have increased.

All of these concerns have mail-order catalogues except Victorian House, which has a brochure.

Laces in adaptations of patterns found at Bowes Moor Manor, Arkholme House and High Casterton House, all properties of the British National Trust, are available through designers and decorators at Kirk-Brummel Associates, 979 Third Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10022. These are woven in England on traditional 19th-century Nottingham looms.